Safe or not?

[eyecatcher]

To me, this looks terrifying. Its at head height.

Would you trust it to be safe?

[taotoo]

Yes I'm sure it's fine.

[Pilotman]

looks 'normal' to me. 

[blackcab]

Moved to the Electrical Forum for specialist advice.

[bankruatsteve]

If you're referring to the bare wires, it looks like a meter was pulled (for non-payment?).  So, probably nothing live on those.  Easy enough to test with a voltmeter to make sure.

[Artisi]

When it is Thai electrics involved, trust nothing, never ever, even after checking  it yourself, be wary. 

[ubonjoe]

The blue wires are the ones going to the house. Not shown in the photo is the black ones that are hot and probably have tape on them.

[ThaidDown]

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

The blue wires are the ones going to the house. Not shown in the photo is the black ones that are hot and probably have tape on them.

Correct, but only one of the black wires will be live (hot) the other will be neutral. Usually only the live will be taped.

 

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, bankruatsteve said:

If you're referring to the bare wires, it looks like a meter was pulled (for non-payment?).  So, probably nothing live on those.  Easy enough to test with a voltmeter to make sure.

Or just touch it briefly. 

[Crossy]

15 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Or just touch it briefly. 

⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡

? (heart rate)

Just using some of the less well known emoticons ?

 

Rest assured "it" is safe, it will suffer no damage whatever if you touch it, you however, may ?

 

[Kwasaki]

Just now, Crossy said:

⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡

? (heart rate)

Just using some of the less well known emoticons ?

 

 

?? my Dad was a electrician in the RAF during ww2, a house we moved to had many old sockets with wiring just old, plugging something in and  it not working he would always check by touch I remember him saying, Oh that's 13 amp or that's only 5 amp.

Dunno whether he was pulling my leg but when I touch something by mistake the belt does feel different on amperage.

[Artisi]

23 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

?? my Dad was a electrician in the RAF during ww2, a house we moved to had many old sockets with wiring just old, plugging something in and  it not working he would always check by touch I remember him saying, Oh that's 13 amp or that's only 5 amp.

Dunno whether he was pulling my leg but when I touch something by mistake the belt does feel different on amperage.

Nonsense. 

[Kwasaki]

21 minutes ago, Artisi said:

Nonsense. 

Can you touch an electric current if you can't you have no idea how stupid your " Nonsense " remark is.

[Aupee]

16 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

The blue wires are the ones going to the house. Not shown in the photo is the black ones that are hot and probably have tape on them.

Outside my house we have the same situation in the Soi but at waist level. My wife was standing yakking to another woman, she got a shock from the black wires without tape she was a good couple of feet away.

 

 

[irwinfc]

13 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

?? my Dad was a electrician in the RAF during ww2, a house we moved to had many old sockets with wiring just old, plugging something in and  it not working he would always check by touch I remember him saying, Oh that's 13 amp or that's only 5 amp.

Dunno whether he was pulling my leg but when I touch something by mistake the belt does feel different on amperage.

surely, he was just pulling your leg. it takes no more than 200 milliamps to kill an adult human being. being able to "measure" 5,000-13,000 milliamps with bare hands and survive, would be nothing short of amazing.

[Formaleins]

34 minutes ago, Aupee said:

Outside my house we have the same situation in the Soi but at waist level. My wife was standing yakking to another woman, she got a shock from the black wires without tape she was a good couple of feet away.

 

 

Tesla lives.

[HarrySeaman]

15 hours ago, ThaidDown said:

Correct, but only one of the black wires will be live (hot) the other will be neutral. Usually only the live will be taped.

 

 

In the West those two wires would indeed be hot and neutral, just not in SEA.  Here they are both hot because the "ground" wire is not grounded but floating.

 

I have tested this in a number of different places in SEA and both wires are hot.  Typically one will be around 180-200V, the other the rest of 220V.  Either will give you a potentially damaging/deadly shock.

[SteveB2]

18 hours ago, bankruatsteve said:

If you're referring to the bare wires, it looks like a meter was pulled (for non-payment?).  So, probably nothing live on those.  Easy enough to test with a voltmeter to make sure.

 

Thai single phase/household electric meter connections are as follows:-

[LIVE IN]---[NEUTRAL IN] ---[NEUTRAL OUT]---[LIVE OUT]

 

In this instance then,

The PEA supply comes in on the left left hand side pair. (black wires)

The User supply goes out on the right hand side pair (blue wires)

[steve73]

16 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

?? my Dad was a electrician in the RAF during ww2, a house we moved to had many old sockets with wiring just old, plugging something in and  it not working he would always check by touch I remember him saying, Oh that's 13 amp or that's only 5 amp.

Dunno whether he was pulling my leg but when I touch something by mistake the belt does feel different on amperage.

Assuming the 13 & 5 amps circuits were both supplied at the same voltage, you (he) would feel no different...  (The number refers only to the fuse protection.)

The current (amps) that will pass through you depends only on your resistance. 

If you have a low resistance (wet/sweaty hands, no shoes, tiled floor, etc) you will pass a higher current - perhaps even enough to kill you.  If you have a higher resistance (dry hands, thick-soled shoes, carpeted floor, etc) then you will only allow a much lower current to pass, and you'd more likely be OK.  (But I still wouldn't recommend you try this at home.!) 

Since a current of just a few hundred milliamps (or less) is enough to kill, either a 5 or a 13 amp supply would be ample (sorry!) to kill you before the fuse protection cut in.

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, irwinfc said:

surely, he was just pulling your leg. it takes no more than 200 milliamps to kill an adult human being. being able to "measure" 5,000-13,000 milliamps with bare hands and survive, would be nothing short of amazing.

Yeah I guess he was but saw him touch the wire not grip it,  don't see why that cannot be understood, it's not recommended but I have done it myself on occasions.

Resistance can come in many ways my Dad didn't where watches cause they would stop, maybe he should of been experimented on again like when he was a 9 year old kid and lost his hair.

Maybe I have more resistance than some people because how do you explain me getting shocks from our 15/45 supply a couple of times and from one of those large double door fridges when I was trying to find out something wrong with it.

It wasn't a pleasant experience but neither was a shock from a cars spark-plug leads or coil when fixing cars.

[Kwasaki]

19 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

The blue wires are the ones going to the house. Not shown in the photo is the black ones that are hot and probably have tape on them.

Blue to house yes sometimes but not always in our province.

[Kwasaki]

3 hours ago, Aupee said:

Outside my house we have the same situation in the Soi but at waist level. My wife was standing yakking to another woman, she got a shock from the black wires without tape she was a good couple of feet away.

Possible when near power lines was she wearing a lot of silver jewelry ?

[ThaidDown]

2 hours ago, HarrySeaman said:

 

In the West those two wires would indeed be hot and neutral, just not in SEA.  Here they are both hot because the "ground" wire is not grounded but floating.

 

I have tested this in a number of different places in SEA and both wires are hot.  Typically one will be around 180-200V, the other the rest of 220V.  Either will give you a potentially damaging/deadly shock.

Sorry, but disagree.  Never seen more than a few volts neutral to earth, except under transformer faults conditions in a TT system.

The majority of the supply network is now MEN where the neutral is bonded to ground about every third pole so the neutral to ground voltage will be almost zero.

[DJ54]

Electric if perfectly safe today...... we have no power......arrgghhh

really

[upu2]

Those bare wires should be taped to both protect anyone touching them. Maybe they are dead but from my experience in Thailand it is not a chance I would take and also it protects the cores from rain

[eyecatcher]

On ‎8‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 3:09 PM, taotoo said:

Yes I'm sure it's fine.

but from the photo.....you cannot be sure can you?

[eyecatcher]

23 hours ago, ThaidDown said:

Correct, but only one of the black wires will be live (hot) the other will be neutral. Usually only the live will be taped.

 

your assumption is incorrect......I will advise the scenario following

[eyecatcher]

It seems the opinions here on this scenario are about the same as the forums I am on where everyone is identifying the killer snake incorrectly...?....just a sarky comment as I would be in the same boat tbh.

 

In this case, I just happened to be parked up sitting in the car as the wife called into the adjacent house. To see those wires at head height untaped was my first concern, not because I thought the blue ones were live but to me you should never leave bare wires unprotected; not just to prevent electrocution but someone poking their eyes out or someone ripping their legs open.

Its my habit even if I remove an old plug from an appliance to fit a plastic block on each wire, tape seldomly.

 

The black live wires which are out of view were actually taped together( with black tape) which sounds like its gonna surprise one of two of you? Why not yellow tape to highlight a danger?

 

When you ride around though, almost every lekky meter standard has that one meter unconnected and the chances of finding a dangerous one are possibly as common as finding a scooter with the keys left in at Global House.

 

the old adage "trust no one and nothing" otherwise it may be your downfall.

[mogandave]

To avoid burning your fingers, you can check it with your tongue...

[Kwasaki]

14 hours ago, eyecatcher said:

the old adage  "trust no one and nothing" otherwise it may be your downfall.

Applied to everywhere you go really.

Thais do many things that are OK for them which people from some countries pick up on easily.

I went about corrected many things to my standards in our Thai built house when I came to live.